Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Workouts?

Your time is valuable. If you are going to put in the time to workout and get fit (especially if you are a part of my santa monica boot camp classes), to my mind you sure as heck should want to get the most out of your efforts.

To determine if you are, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I getting enough rest the night before? Recent studies indicate that most of us need somewhere between 5-8 hours of sleep each night to be able to go at the next day with renewed excitement. How do you know whether it is 5 or 8 for you? Regardless of how many you are getting the question to ask yourself is "Do you feel rested when you wake in the morning?" If you do, then what your getting is good, if not, you probably need more time getting some zzzs. To get the most from your workouts, do your best to get enough hours of sleep to be able to give it your all for your early morning workouts.

2. Am I having a pre-workout snack? If you are going to be doing any form of strength training in your workouts, most experts agree you should put about 150-200 calories of food into your body about 30-45 minutes before exercising to provide the muscles with enough fuel to power through your workouts. No food = No fuel = Nowhere near the RESULTS.

3. Am I eating something within 15 - 60 minutes after your workout is over? This window of time is when the muscle cell is most receptive to being refueled/replenished with glycogen, so that it can recover properly to get stronger and stronger. If you miss this window you can actually train your body to store fat rather than burn it. Studies suggest that this is the time when you could have a carb to protein ratio of 4 to 1...the sugar you consume in the form of carb is used up very quickly to help the cells recover.

4. Am I drinking enough water? If you find yourself thirsty, you are already dehydrated. If you get dehydrated during a workout, studies have shown a decrease in performance sometimes in excess of 25%. A simple of rule of thumb for water intake is to drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water per day. The old idea of eight 8 oz glasses of water a day would apply to someone who is about 128 pounds but for someone who weighs 140 to 150 the demands are higher...so drink up!

5. Have I clarified my intentions before I start to workout? Some would call this goal setting...I like to say "know your purpose" before you begin. Think it, speak it and maybe even write it...but make it specific. Something like..."Today I am going to do my best to do one more push up than I did yesterday" or "This morning my focus is to bring great awareness to my breathing during the workout" These are just a couple of examples of intentions you could set before you begin to exercise. Throughout your workout, check back in and remind yourself of your intention for the morning. Afterwards you should then honestly assess whether you accomplished what you set out to do...you can determine immediately whether or not you were successful during that workout based on what you determined would define success for that day. It is a way of holding yourself accountable to doing more than just showing up.

There you have it...some simple ways to gauge whether or not you are giving yourself the best shot at getting the most out of your boot camp workouts.

Here's to your health,
Adam Brewer